State Department to Mr. Zelaya: A Deal is a Deal!

Last week former President Zelaya of Honduras signed an agreement with the interim government of Roberto Micheletti that cleared the way for ending the constitutional crisis in that Central American country. Key to the agreement was a provision leaving it up to the Congress to vote on Mr. Zelaya’s possible restoration to office.

Yesterday, the State Department’s official spokesman reiterated, ‘This is a Honduran problem that will have a Honduran solution.”

The Administration must continue to adhere to this position and not backtrack. It needs to move swiftly to restore normal relations, release funding for electoral observers, and unblock foreign assistance so a degree of normality can return to Honduras.

Members of the Congress of Honduras met this week and called for opinions from the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, and the Human Rights Ombudsman before convening a special session. This is a reasonable step given the gravity of the constitutional and legal issues. They will meet at an unspecified date to vote.

National elections are set for November 29. The campaign is in full swing with candidates selected in primaries before June 28. A government of national unity is being formed, although Zelaya declined to participate. A verification commission has also been created. The military now answers to the electoral tribunal not to the interim government.

Less than a week after the October 30 agreement, Zelaya is saying the deal is off because he is not back ‘in power.”. .

Last week, many questioned Zelaya’s commitment to the agreement if Congress did not quickly restore him to office.

And Zelaya clearly appears to have miscalculated his backing in the Honduran congress.

Now, Mr. Zelaya wants to tear up the agreement and walk away. He demands the U.S. not recognize the outcome of the November 29 elections unless he is restored to office immediately. He also wants the U.S. to punish his fellow Honduran with an array of irksome sanctions unless he is returned.

This should not happen. The Obama Administration cannot let Mr. Zelaya continue to unravel the political and economic fabric of this fragile nation..

Join The Discussion

There is only one thing that Zelaya wants and that is to be re-instated as president. Once he is back he will try and stop the elections by declaring they are illegal. Why do you think he and his gang never presented a national budget for 2009? Without funds the elections couldn't take place. If you live in Honduras you know exactly what this criminal is up to.

What is happening is that the coup will stand. That's what Obama and his people planned all along. This is a signal for more coups across the region. I saw this as soon as the coup happened. For one thing, they were counting time against Zelaya, charging it to his term whilst he was not in power. They did the same thing to Aristide in Haiti. Time was on the side of the right-wing coup plotters. The first demand should have been that the term end move in the future for every day the coup people were in power.

If only the Honduran left had itself a Chavez-type leader who would have not gone along with this stupid farce. A Chavez or a Morales. Central America is in a tougher spot, of course, to resist the skulduggery from up north.

My primary gripe is that the Zelaya camp is demanding international financial sanctions and is actively undermining the tourism industry in order to create the internal pressure needed to cause Micheletti to capitulate. Zelaya's tactics primarily damage the very people he was entrusted to protect…the people of Honduras.

In contrast, if restored, his (hopefully) highly supervised tenure for the next 3 months would be only valuable to his ego. Not much of a trade-off when compared to the very real damage he is doing to his countrymen's lives.

The Guaymuras-Tegucigalpa-San José Accord is a political/legal contract between both parties to this dispute.

Both parties are politically astute & (presumably)sound minded and have signed their agreement with each clause of the accord.

The accord is in the written in the native language of both parties, so any ambiguities in the terms of the Accord are intentional. Any unwritten assumptions by either party were a political gamble, but are nonetheless factually moot. The accord is what the words say the accord is.

One of the few accomplished and yet uncontested steps in the process has been the establishment of the Verification Commission…Jorge Arturo Reina (Zelaya's appointee), Arturo Corrales Alvarez (Micheletti's appointee), Ricardo Lagos (Chile) & Hilda Solis (USA).

As I understand their charter, the Verification Commission is required to verify strict compliance with all points of the Accord and that failure to comply with any of the commitments contained in the Accord will result undefined penalties to be decided by the Verification Commission.

Sounds to me like the Verification Committee needs to step up to the plate & fulfill their charter.

I am proud of the people of Honduras and of their committment to THEIR laws and THEIR constitution.

R. Canada- what coup? Zelaya tried,with the help of Chavez, to get around the constitution and stay in office. The Hondurans followed their laws and Zelaya had a choice – leave Honduras or be tried for breaking the law. It was a tragedy that the Obama administration, unlike all previous administrations who have championed democracy, chose the path they did. Since our country appears to no longer supports our democratic friends, they should keep their nose out of those countries business.

Zelaya is just another brother in socialist arms with Chavez, Castro, and Mao-Bama. At this point it looks like Zelaya will be cliff note of socialist failure in the history books just as Mao-Bama will soon be. Mmm Mmm MMmmm

DiAnne,I feel the same way. I feel so bad for the countries that are feeling the pain, because of the bad choices some have made in electing this administration. I'am ashamed of my government, this is not what we the true Americans believe in.

This is so true. I have a friend in Honduras and Obama backed the dictator rather than the congress and Constitution and Supreme court of Honduras. Remind you that apparently accorn showed up at the elections this Nov.

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